MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. No information is available yet concerning preparations for a potential new meeting between Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, but direct contacts between the churches continue, Ivan Soltanovsky, Russian Ambassador to the Vatican, said in an interview with TASS.
"The embassy does not have any information about preparations for another meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis," the ambassador said. "As the experience of the truly historic meeting of the leaders in Havana [on February 12, 2016] showed, its organization was carried out along church lines, so the question is better addressed to the Moscow Patriarchate."
"Direct and fairly regular contacts between the churches continue, as we are aware," the Russian ambassador to the Holy See noted.
The first meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis was in 2016 in Havana. It resulted in the signing of a 30-point joint declaration, one of the main clauses of which called for rendering joint assistance by Orthodox believers and Catholics for their fellow Christians in the Middle East and North Africa who are subject to persecution.